About Me

Manu Sharma New Delhi / Gurgaon, India

Since mid 2006 I have grappled with climate change and what it means for us. As an activist and campaigner, I sought to learn and simultaneously, attempted to influence the issues surrounding it - in technology and policy advocacy. As a consultant, I studied markets and created portfolios in sustainability services and renewable energy investment.

After thousands of hours of research, tenacious activism, working up-close with NGOs as well as the industry, delivering about two dozen public talks, countless conferences, hundreds of online discussions, a few media appearances (including Reuters, News Television, and BBC radio), and continuous evolution of my own ideas about what ought to be done - I may have found some answers but the issue remains far from being addressed.

In the despair filled world of climate change the only place I've found real and lasting hope is in a beautiful vision inspired by "The Ringing Cedars of Russia" book series by Vladimir Megre. The books have triggered a transition movement in Russia and have profoundly influenced me. I am now working towards the vision.

Climate Revolution Initiative, an RTI campaign I founded and ran for a few years is now retired. I no longer deliver talks. I still consider myself an activist though and occasionally post on Green-India group started over nine years ago.

Older entries in this blog relate to my former occupation in user experience design; long time interest in business innovation, strategy, ethics; and venture creation.

Image on top of this bar is courtesy book covers of The Ringing Cedars series published under Croatian translation. (Source)

August 06, 2005

The Birth of a Superstar: How Google Came Into Being

An upcoming book on Google traces two founding ideas behind the company to their inception

As Google Inc. stock price more than tripled in the ten months since its IPO, perplexing Wall Street analysts who are unable to decide "whether to be impressed, suspicious or amused" by the astounding growth (but continue to recommend the stock all the same)... here's a Google question to ponder:

Which one of the following inventions is the greater contributor to the phenomenal success that Google enjoys today?

Larry and Sergey's page-rank algorithm that powers the search engine which solved the problem of the poor search user experience of late 90s, acquiring fan following of millions of users in the process.

or

Bill Gross' pay per click advertising model conceived at GoTo.com (now Overture) that Google latched on to early in its evolution and ran with it, spawning a multi-billion dollar search industry.

If you think Google's great technology is behind its success, think again. What good would the search engine have been to its founders had they not found a way to make a business out of it? What if Bill Gross had not conceived the pay per click model that Larry and Sergey adopted? (Google was taken to court over the patented idea and eventually had to settle outside the court).

So how did Google rose to what it is today? Is it the technology or the way they made money with the technology? The answer of course, is both. You can't choose one ignoring the other. And these are just two of the many founding ideas that continue to drive Google's success. Some of the other, rather well known ones are the company's unique culture that fosters innovation, its stringent hiring practices that ensure they hire only geniuses and its intense focus on solving users most important problems with unique products.

I've been waiting for ages to read a book by a Google insider that would give a real insight into the minds of Larry and Sergey and the company they are creating. There have been quite a few books written on Google but these are how-to manuals on making the most of the search engine. I'm not interested in Google hacks. I want to know what kind of childhood Sergey and Larry had, about the capitalist dream of a business they have created and how it's influencing other businesses, how is it that they continue to do the right thing in every imaginable way, and whether so much of a good thing can really last.

John Battelle's upcoming work "Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture" is the first book that comes close to what I describe above. I can't wait to get my hands on it.

Back to topic, John's book carries detailed accounts of the two inventions I mention above that led to the creation of $80 billion of capital at which Google is valued today. Here are the two insightful excerpts: